My post-grad career path consisted of many difficult choices, risks, and strategies. In the beginning of college, I wanted to do management or marketing. I was settled on going into retail post-grad; however, I was inspired and motivated by friends, mentors, and role models to shoot for the stars and hope to land on the moon.
During my senior year, my goal was to work for one of the Big 4 Accounting Firms (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG) or large banks (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan) in the consulting/advisory fields. I networked with hundreds of professionals, scheduling weekly phone chats or meetings through email and LinkedIn. They gave me great advice on how to pursue my own career path and how they achieved their aspirations.
Although I had strong connections pertaining to these big companies and even interviewing at some, I was unfortunately rejected by all of them. I was very late to the process, so I was put in a unfortunate position where I had little chance to land an offer.
I wanted to pursue a career with the Big 4 or a large bank because I felt that starting there would help develop my skills and further my career. My end goal was to get into one of the top tech companies after starting my career. Although I was rejected by all of them, I went to the ALPFA National Convention and landed a job offer with one of the most prestigious banks to work in the East Coast in their Financial Analyst Development Program. After the Convention, I was fortunate to land an interview to work at Snapchat in Santa Monica, ultimately landing an offer with the company as well. After deliberating for several weeks, I decided start my career working at Snapchat as an Operations Specialist. Although it was a risky choice, I felt it would be worthwhile and rewarding at the end.
I worked at Snapchat for about 8 months; however, I was informed that my position would be outsourced and I would be moved to another company at the end of March. I then decided to accept position at Boeing as a Procurement Agent/Operations Analyst in Seal Beach. I was very fortunate and happy to land an offer with one of the most prestigious and reputable aerospace companies in the world, as I met some of the best co-workers and managers during my time there.
My end goal was still to land an offer with one of the top tech companies: Google or LinkedIn. I interviewed with Google for one of their positions; however, I was rejected on one of the final rounds which was very tough on me. After networking and keeping strong connections, I was fortunate to interview again and land a position to work at Google as a Sales Strategy and Product Operations Analyst in Mountain View. I moved from the Los Angeles area to Sunnyvale, as I started my new position in mid-May working on the Local Services – LPO team.
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Jonathan Words of Wisdom 